Happy Halloween!

I bet you could all guess what we were going to dress Hulk up as....

The cut is NOT makeup - but it adds nice realism, huh? Poor guy fell and hit himself really hard on the windowsill at daycare. Freaked everyone out - but no stitches needed.

Sad Things

So. At the church Aaron and I attend, there was a couple who had a lot of problems getting pregnant - and we were all very excited when they announced they were due in Oct. As both our pregnancies progressed, we compared notes (they didn't find out the sex, they we trying for a homebirth - so pretty different!). Turns out she had a hemorrhage of some sort, and ended up finding they were having a baby boy. The last I saw her, she was a week over due and still on track for a home birth.

Then, we got an email from the pastor, and we find out that she 'lost' the baby. I don't know any details - but I was shocked! We never heard anymore details (and I'm not sure I want to anyway, not when I'm 34 weeks pregnant myself- no need to have new things to obsess over). They are having a service of loss and remembrance on Tuesday. My first instinct is to go - of course. But then, I got nervous. It isn't like we were best friends, just two pregnant ladies comparing symptoms and talking about baby gear. Would me showing up, visibly pregnant, be awful for her? And Aaron is nervous that me going would be, if not an issue for her, traumatic for me. I feel like I'll be OK - but this is the same woman who cries at each and every episode of Baby Story on TLC.

What would you do? I've got a babysitter lined up for Hulk (the service is at 7 PM). Aaron is willing to go alone to show our family's support.

The shower and totally nesting

The shower was great for me - but not without drama for the rest of the family. Some of Aaron's Aunts aren't talking to each other - so that was fun to watch them all in the same room together! And my mother was annoyed that Aaron's family didn't talk to her that much (I told her to get over it), and that my SIL brought her one year old (she thought the baby 'stole the show' - I didn't care, nor did I feel that way). I mostly just enjoyed myself and loved sitting up and catching up with everyone in a nice social setting! And of course, getting wonderful presents.

With the shower, the twins room is now 99% done. I only have maybe one thing to buy (another soother - we got one, just need a second). The cribs are setup, as are the Amby baby beds. All the clothes (both new and hand me down) are sorted, washed and put away. I have 172 diapers sitting next to the changing table. And wipes! The curtains are hung, Aaron put the light on the ceiling and added a dimmer switch (sounds minor - but it's a big deal - he did it in Cam's room and it's awesome). Aaron is building a castle bookshelf to put toys, pictures and books on. I'm going to find a table to put bottle warmers on. And I'm thinking of getting some letters to spell their names and put on the walls over the cribs. And that is IT. That is all left to do.

It's crazy - I don't even think I had clothes in the drawers or diapers for Hulk when he came home. It feels good to be so prepared. With all this preparation, I'm going to take the time to organize my own closet, while I'm in the mood to purge. I am 100% nesting. Yesterday, I went through my whole living room and just got rid of CRAP. We tend to pile up crap on chairs, tables... really any available surface in the living room. I had a pile of mail from June. Stacks of catalogues. A few piles of hand me downs that hadn't made it upstairs. A rack with something like 20 scarves on it, I maybe wear 5 of them? A basket on the floor with napkins? WTF was up with that one?

Currently, there is NO extraneous crap in the living room. It feels awesome. And, it made space for Aaron to bring up a train table that one of our friends gave us - and Hulk LOVED playing with his trucks on that last night. And the table has bins under it for storage, so it had the added benefit of giving us more places to store the multiplying toys. Love it.

Lookie what Hulk can do now!

It's 5 AM on a Sunday....

Seriously.

And it isn't like I just woke up, either. I've been up since 3. I've been told by other twin mom's that sleep is close to impossible near the end - I get it now. Sigh.

Yesterday was SUCH a fun day. I started out with leaving Hulk with Aaron as I went out and ran errands (hurrah for larger maternity underpants! and a good pedicure!). Got home, and was visited by my SIL and Hulk's cousin who is 6 weeks older than him. It's so much fun to watch them play together. SIL was here with my MIL to attend the twin's shower - and that was great too.

My shower for Hulk was weird, as the only family that attended was my mother and my aunt. No one from Aaron's side either. Just all my sweet friends. They claimed they didn't get invites, but I have my doubts. This time? Everyone came. My favorite cousin came, and she had me laughing so hard I almost peed my pants! Fun fun fun! And, of course, we got wonderful presents for the twins, and I barely have anything else left to pick up for them. And, I got lots of cashola to help to defray any post partum doula/night nanny expenses (hurrah!).

Today, when the rest of the world wake up - my big plan is to take Hulk and get him some 'walkin shoes'. He is teetering on the edge of walking, and I think he needs some good 'grippy' soled shoes. He current ones are kind of slippery on the bottom, and haven't really been helping the learning process.

TGIF!!!!

I decided to take yesterday off work and do some work of my own on the twin's room. Since Monday, different family members have been here - painting, organizing clothes, arranging furniture... and Aaron got the baseboard in and most of the electrical done (still have to install a light). I went to my non-stress test in the morning (babies both looking perfect and my blood pressure is still great), and spent the rest of the day working on the valances. I was having issues getting started, but then I just went for it - and they turned out perfectly.

My aunts also attacked Hulk's room, and all of the clothes that he will never wear again are gone. Either donated or in a box for a pregnant friend. We got rid of a dresser that wasn't working for me, and pulled in one from the guest room - it's all wonderful. And organized. There is a nice playspace for Hulk in his room now. They even put labels on each drawer for where everything goes. Now I just need to keep it that way.

Last night, Aaron put up the black out shades and hung my finished curtains (woot!). We were talking about how everything is coming together so well for this room. And how lucky we are that we made Hulk's room the smaller of the bedroom's upstairs - so we have this just right sized room for the twins. And just how we finally know how to do everything. It's awesome. Really great. Only thing the room is missing is to hang artwork, Aaron is building a bookshelf, finish the lights, and have the rug delivered. I thought it was on backorder until Oct 27th... guess what arrived today?!?! My perfect rug for the room. Seriously - it s JUST perfect.

Happy Sigh. I want to post pictures, but I think I'm going to wait until it's really 'done'. Of course, no good day goes unpunished, and work today absolutely SUCKS. But I only have a few more hours.

In other news - tomorrow is my shower. I'm really looking forward to it - I think it's going to be a hoot - as all of Aaron's family is coming. And my friends have never met them - only heard stories. At least now they will know that I wasn't exaggerating!!!

Getting closer!

Want to see the twin's room?!

OK - it's really hard to get a picture of the room. But - you can see the awesome pink of the walls, the hardwood floor, and the fact that the furniture is put together! Today, 2 of my aunts are coming to hang the blinds and curtain rods, organize clothing, put up the dragon decal (woot!) figure out how the room is going to be laid out.... and maybe the rug will even arrive!

This weekend is my shower, so feels like we are totally getting ready for these babies. Last night, as Aaron was in there setting up the cribs, Hulk kept crawling in and out of the room (he hasn't been allowed in due to all the construction for months) and looks around and pointing at everything. Wonder if he's thinking....hmmm. Two cribs? Are they for me?

Ha. Poor guy doesn't know what's going to happen!

That wasn't what I expected

So. I've been mentioning how crappy I've been feeling. I forgot to tell you all that they saw some blood in my urine at one of my non-stress tests (a symptom of a UTI). But I wasn't having any symptoms (or any more than usual - frequent urination? I'm pregnant. With twins). And - they tested my urine 2 more times that week - you think they would have said something?!?!

Friday night, after I got Hulk to bed, I started feeling really bad. Cramping in my lower back, having to go to the bathroom a lot - so I figured I would call my doc. She told me to come in right away. And lo and behold, they get me on the monitor, and I'm having contractions about every 2 minutes. Awesome. The good news is my cervix was totally closed, I passed that test that tells you if you are likely to deliver in the next two weeks (I'm not) and they were able to stop the contractions almost right away with 2 shots of Terbutaline. On the bad side, terb made me feel like SHIT and I do have a UTI. I was pretty angry (still am) that they didn't just treat me for the UTI earlier in the week, and therefore avoiding all the drama. But at least, in the end, it wasn't anything major.

Of course, Aaron was away for all this - I called my aunt who lives in town, and she drove me to the hospital. Hulk's godmother, who was already planning on coming for the weekend, came over and stayed with him while I was at the hospital. I told Aaron to stay at work until we were sure it was something he needed to come home for (which it wasn't). But he did end up coming home on Saturday afternoon instead of Sunday, which was a big relief. I have to admit that it was hard for me to just let other people take care of Hulk. I just couldn't stay awake on Saturday, and I felt like total crap when I was awake. Suzanne got up with Hulk in the morning (I didn't get home until 2 AM), gave him his bottle, his breakfast, played with him..... and then he was a super baby all day - taking a 3 hour nap in the morning, and a 2 hour nap in the afternoon!

I went this morning for my scheduled ultrasound and non-stress test - and the good news is that all is well. Baby A is measuring 4 lbs 13 oz, and Baby B is at 4 lbs 7 oz. Babies both look good, and my blood pressure and everything is still doing well. Now I just need to get over this UTI, and we are all set.

I feel....

Bad? Good? Who the freak knows.

I woke up on Weds and needed to go to the doc for my 31 week check up (all is well, although I'm a little anemic). I have to admit to asking the doc about what it would take to write me out of work. We have a big production issue that is really stressful going on right now, and my boss is on freaking vacation for the past 3 weeks (with another week to go!). The doc said that she could write me a note to reduce my hours... um - yeah right. It's pretty much an all or nothing thing. I figure so long as a can work from home some days - I'll just keep it up for now.

But Weds night, I slept a total of 30 minutes. I was first fired up about work, and then the heartburn started, and then the twins started having a party in my belly. I had to get up on Thursday to go in for a non-stress test, and was stuck on my back for an hour while they tried to chase down Baby B - who decided that kicking the monitor was more fun than staying still and letting us track her heartbeat. I could barely walk when I got up.. my back hurt so badly.

So yesterday I was feeling pretty sorry for myself. I worked from home on the couch trying to type on my side (not so easy - I locked up two passwords that way). I couldn't sit on the floor and play with Hulk - things hurt too much. I mostly sit on the sidelines and watch Aaron do bath and bedtime (I don't even do the final bottle anymore! I basically have no lap!). I finished a really pretty shawl for a friend for her birthday weeks ago (the party is Saturday night), and I can't finish the damn thing because it hurts too much to bend over (I need to pin it out). I asked for help, got the shawl pinned out with Aaron's help, took a long hot shower, and went to bed at 7:30.

But then, last night I slept pretty well. Hulk woke up at 7:30 this morning!! And had normal poop (tell me a year ago I'd be excited about the consistency of another person's poop!? I'd have laughed). And my back feels pretty decent, and not too much else hurts. Aaron is away tonight and tomorrow night doing a job for some extra cash (woot! we need extra cash!). At first I was nervous, but my good buddy Suzanne is coming over Saturday and staying with us for the weekend, and we are road tripping to do some yarn shopping. And Sunday, the painting begins on the nursery! So, I went from feeling bad to feeling pretty good. Just need to survive one more work day and then enjoy my weekend!

The Nursery!

Poor Hulk came home sick from day care on Thursday with some poop issues, which continued on throughout the weekend. Which had me at home with him on Friday (of course, sad and poopy all morning when I had all my work calls, and then napped from 12:30 to 3:30... Aaron arrived home at 1 to help me). He was sick enough to be sad, but not totally miserable. And, the plan was already for me to mostly handle Hulk all weekend, so Aaron could totally concentrate on getting major work done in the nursery.

And he did! The hardwood floor is totally in. He finished the walls and put a coat of primer on (and looks amazing). Hulk and I went out and picked out colors for the walls (Fairy Pink) and got the material for the curtains. I also went to Nini Bambini and pick out some Haba furniture to finish up the room. I'm going to get this shelf:

I had originally planned to have Aaron make something - but this is super cute, and by the time Aaron actually makes the shelf, the girls will be 2 years old! He has way too many major projects going on now to take the time for a detailed castle bookshelf project.

I also am going to get this cute princess mirror to put up over the changing table:

These items probably aren't going to come in until Mid-November sometime (she is making one big Haba order for Christmas ordering) but that is fine with me.

The weekend of my baby shower (Oct 24th), I bet I'll be able to post a picture of a mostly finished nursery! It feels so good to be even at the point we are now - really just minimal work to do, and it's work that other people are going to do for us. I'm going to get to washing the Amby Baby beds and finishing up the curtains this week or weekend.

Size update

I just had one of the most annoying mornings on record. There was a combination of poop, poop in areas OTHER than diapers, car seat installations (by a heavily pregnant woman who has never installed a f'ing car seat before), a baby painting with dog water on the kitchen floor, and getting stuck behind a digger on a back road on my way to work. I even started the day with a nice outfit and blown out hair. I'm currently sporting a dirty shirt and sweaty hair in a pony tail.

In an effort to move on from the crappiness that was my morning, I thought I'd entertain you with Huge Cece pictures. I don't think I've ever given you all a front view?

And the ever growing side shot:

Enjoy.

Baby signing

I must admit, when I heard of people doing baby signs or baby videos that help their babies learn to talk (at 6 months, seriously? SERIOUSLY?!!?) I thought it was totally silly. Why put pressure on the poor kid - they find ways to communicate on their own, right? And yes, for the most part, Hulk does do that. But at daycare, they do a few signs, like the one for 'all done' and I really think he gets that. I use it for when I think he's all done with dinner, and if he's messing around looking at the dogs or whatever, and isn't all done, he'll open up for another bite.

I see the usefulness now. Do any of you all do signing with your little one? I'd be interested to know if you use it a lot or not.

So, I signed up for a class in Baby Signs at Nini Bambini on Monday. It's Columbus Day, so I've got the day off, and daycare is closed. Even if the class is a bomb, Hulk and I love visiting Nina, so I'm excited. Anyone from the area interested? Call Nini and sign up and let me know if you are coming! I think it'll be fun.

30 Weeks

I'm 30 weeks pregnant today. That seems REALLY pregnant to me. I feel that way too. Sleep is more like a string of 1 -2 hour naps. It's really hard to bend over. I'm starting to get really teary over stuff. And - this is the LAST week of no doctor's appointments for me. I have an a ob appointment next week, and then begins the twice weekly non-stress tests to check on the girls. So, I'd better enjoy it while I can, huh?

This weekend was fun and stressful at the same time. Saturday, Aaron and I made an unexpected trip to our old favorite breakfast place in the town we used to live in. We hadn't been there in so long that the last time they had seen us was BEFORE Hulk was born. They were shocked to see me pregnant again (hahahaha) - and of course, Hulk charmed them all. We stopped on the way home and picked up some blackout curtains for the nursery (so I just need to get the valances made in the next 2 weeks) and then I spent the afternoon up at Nini Bambini's playing with Hulk. I even finished up a cute sweater/hat combo for Hulk AND went to the yarn store and got more yarn for the next sweater for him (and yes, I haven't really knit much for the girls. I'm waiting until after the shower - I have a feeling baby girl knits are going to be too hard for my friends to resist).

But Sunday, Hulk woke up and just would NOT settle down. He wasn't sad or fussy - just all over the place! And all he wanted was his father. Which I made even better by waking up with an awful headache. So, Aaron spent the early afternoon playing with Hulk while I tried to recover from my headache. He of course had a blast playing with him, but he had higher hopes of more progress on the nursery. The good news is that it's sanded. So this week he is going to clean up the dust, and then put a coat of primer down, and pray that the walls don't need anymore work. If that is the case, we get the flooring this weekend!

OK - better start my Monday.

2 months to go.

Damn. Someone was asking me how long I had to go before the twins came, and I realized it's 8 weeks.

8. Weeks.

Deep breath.

That also means only 31 working days left for me (or 6 weeks) because I'm taking those 2 weeks off before my c-section. *happy dance*

The good news is, things are falling into place. Quick list of what we have solved or underway:

• Aaron's aunts are planning on coming on the week of Oct 18th and painting and decorating the nursery. All Aaron needs to do is to prep the room. Which takes a huge amount of pressure off us. They will also organize all the handmedown girl clothes I have. I'm going to spend the next weeks getting the little final touches ready to go - like buying the black out curtains and making the valences.
• I have this delusion that the twins will sleep in their own room from when we come home. I know I kept Hulk in with us for over 3 months, but I found that when he was sleeping, I would just lay there listening to him or worrying that the dogs or Aaron's snoring would wake him. And his little baby 'chirps' would wake me up. So, we are going to at least start them out in their room. Once the nursery is done, I'm ready. I have the Amby Baby beds (found a second on Craig's List) and anything else they will need already.
• I had a dream the other night that the Douala that attended Hulk's birth was 'missing' at the girl's birth. We honestly didn't think to ask her, because I know I'm having a c-section, and I felt that I would be OK with just Aaron. I was talking to her on the phone - and mentioned the dream - and she said - I'd love to be there! I was slow to answer - because I don't really have the extra $$$ to have her come. I asked if we'd get a discount, and she laughed and said she would just be there. Sweet. It'll be awesome to have her support - plus she got amazing photos last time. And Aaron can just concentrate on me and the babies.
• I started researching night nannies. One piece of advice that I've gotten from many twin mom's is that night nannies have saved their sanity. There is a service here that is popular with twin moms - but they are $340 a NIGHT - 10 hours at $34 an hour. Damn. I'm pretty confidant that Aaron and I will do OK , but I like the idea of maybe once a week knowing that we will get a full night's sleep. I got the name of a post partum Douala who would be interested in helping us out. We will meet with her soon, and get some pricing on that. I had put out the word to family that we didn't really need much in terms of 'stuff' (only thing we definitely need is the mattresses for the cribs - but since we use the Amby Baby beds, we won't need those right away either) but money towards a night nanny would be awesome (figuring if we didn't use the nanny, we could use the money for diapers and formula too!).
• Starting on Dec 9th, we have coverage for the daytime with friends and family until the nanny starts on Jan 2nd. And Hulk will stay in daycare until at least the nanny starts. So, we may use the Douala for the first week to have an extra set of hands, but Aaron will be there also.

So! Things are as much under control as I can expect, I guess. And that makes me feel good.